Inquiry from Newsweek

Dear Phyllis Reynolds Naylor,

As you may know, your book was included in the American Library Association’s recently released list of the Most Banned Books of the Decade.

Do you have any comment about being included on this list, how it makes you feel, your reactions to any parents or community members looking to keep your book out of readers’ hands, why you included LGBTQ content in your book (despite some people’s disapproval of it) or words of encouragement for people advocating for freedom of speech in such a censorious environment?

Any comment would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Daniel Villarreal
Newsweek reporter

The twenty-eight books of the Alice series are told in the voice of Alice herself, beginning when she was eight years old and ending, in the final book, at age 60, when she is about to embark on a new career.  If there is one characteristic about Alice, it’s that she is honest and open about what she thinks and feels, from her sexual curiosity to her religious doubts and musings; from her remorse about hurting other people to her celebration of all that’s “good and true and real.”  In one of the Alice books, she is faced with the dilemma of having to tell a new friend that although she likes her very much, she’s not attracted to her in a sexual way.  And she is so happy for this friend when she finds a girl who loves her the way Alice can’t.  I have found that most librarians support my books and the right to read them.  If all the characters in a book have to think the same way, look the same way, believe the same way, love the same way….what a dark, unimaginative place this world would be.